GOP senator touts Ramaswamy as exciting presidential candidate 

Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), who says he likes the policies of former President Trump but has held back from officially endorsing his campaign for president, touted entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy on Monday as an exciting candidate who could turn around the nation’s financial situation. 

“I think clearly the guy that is different that espouses a lot of what Trump did would be Vivek Ramaswamy, because you’re going to have to have somebody that has a business background, is entrepreneurial. That’s the only chance we turn the biggest business around in the world and get it to where we’re not borrowing from our kids and grandkids,” Braun told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in an interview Monday.   

The Indiana senator touted Ramaswamy when asked a hypothetical question about whom he would like to see win the GOP nomination if Trump, who is dominating the rest of the field in national and state polls, fell short of clinching it.  

He praised Ramaswamy as a candidate who could help solve the nation’s fiscal problems. 

“I think that’s why he’s resonating,” Braun said.  

Braun, who is running for governor in his home state, voiced concern over the federal government’s $32.7 trillion debt, which he said has grown quickly in recent years because of President Biden’s policies. 

“I don’t think what Biden is selling is working. That takes us deeper into the hole,” he said.  

He said the country needs term limits on senators and House members in Washington and a balanced budget amendment.  

Asked by CNBC anchor Joe Kernen if Trump could win the general election, Braun acknowledged that Democrats are helping him in the GOP presidential primary because they think he would be a weak candidate in November 2024.  

“I think whatever they try politically through the indictments and so forth, that strengthens him, not weakens him,” he said of the Democrats and what many Republicans view as politically motivated prosecutions of the former president.  

Trump faces 91 felony counts and four criminal trials in Manhattan, Miami, Washington, D.C., and Georgia.  

When Kernen noted that Democrats think Biden can beat Trump, Braun acknowledged: “They are tabulating it that way.” 

Braun told The Hill in June that he’s “endorsing the policies” of Trump but clarified “I’ve not endorsed anyone officially.”